New Philip Noyce Project Among Six Projects to Benefit From New Romanian Cash Rebate Scheme
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BUCHAREST: Six projects have been approved for cash rebate in the scheme launched in Romania in October 2018. They include international and Romanian projects, including David Berman’s War by Philip Noyce and a Florence Nightingale biopic presumably starring Keira Knightley.

According to the Romanian media, Scottish actor Gerard Butler and American actor Liev Schreiber are in talks for David Berman’s War aka The Devil’s Brigade, which together with Florence are serviced in Romania by Frame Film.

Another international project approved for the rebate is Dragonheart 5, serviced by Castel Film Studios. The film is a sequel to Universal’s Dragonheart 4, which was also shot in Romania.

Fifteen projects have applied for the rebate since 8 October 2018, when the scheme was launched, through 28 November 2018, of which eight are in the evaluation process and one was rejected.

The state aid scheme offers a 35% cash rebate on qualified expenditure for international productions shooting in Romania. Additionally, productions explicitly promoting Romania, with a minimum local spend of 20% of the total budget of the production, can also apply for a rebate of 10%.

There is a total cap of 50 m EUR per year to fund the scheme. The minimum required amount of qualified expenses is 100,000 EUR. The scheme is open to feature films, medium and short fiction films, TV series, direct-to-video, internet and any other support films, documentaries and animated films. The rebate cannot exceed 10 m EUR per project (or per season, for a TV series).

The scheme will work on a first come first served basis and will require international productions to have production services or a coproduction contract with a Romanian production company.

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